Stock Market & Financial Investment News

BTIG's oil services research team holds an analyst/industry conference callOil Services Research Team discusses near-term and long-term impact of Macondo on drillers, comparing and contrasting the four main service companies, SLB, HAL, BHI and WFT and discussing which is the best-positioned company moving forward on an Analyst/Industry conference call to be held on February 22 at 2 pm.

Baker Hughes says Q2 negatively impacted by deteriorating pricing, currencyCEO Martin Craighead commented, "Even though the severity of the revenue decline has compressed our margins, we have minimized the impact by aggressively reducing costs and rightsizing our operational footprint. These actions have resulted in decremental margins of 35% compared to the prior year, a significant improvement from the prior industry downturn. Furthermore, earnings for the quarter were impacted by an unfavorable tax rate which resulted primarily from a change in the geographic mix of earnings."

Halliburton has 90% upside potential over 3 years, says CitiCiti analyst Scott Gruber believes regulatory approval for Halliburton's (HAL) proposed acquisition of Baker Hughes (BHI) is a "high probability event." Halliburton's buyback potential post-acquisition looks significant, Gruber tells investors in a research note. He estimates $5.00 of pro forma earnings per share for Halliburton in 2018, suggesting 90% upside potential for shares over the next three years. The analyst notes that applying a 16 times earnings multiple yields a $78 share price. He keeps a Buy rating on Halliburton with a $54 price target. The oil services company closed yesterday up 75c to $40.74 after reporting Q2 results.